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Barfly

1987

Barbet Schroeder

Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, Alice Krige, Jack Nance ...

6.4

3,483

Drama Based on a semiautobiographical short story by poet and screenwriter Charles Bukowksi and directed by Barbet Schroeder, BARFLY offers insight into the world of the alcoholic, where all that matters is the next drink. Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke) is a talented writer of prolific prose; unfortunately, he’s also a skid-row alcoholic with a violent temper. He picks fights nightly with Eddie (Frank Stallone), the bartender at the local ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"The dialogue scenes between Rourke and Dunaway in this movie are never less than a pleasure, but their exchanges on that first night are poetry (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Michael Wilmington Los Angeles Times	"[It] is beautifully written, acted and directed. It may be full of dank desire, wasted love and jesting misery--but it blooms."	POS
United Kingdom	William Thomas Empire	"Convincingly sozzled performances but, like Bukowski's poetry, there is little meaningful here to take away (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Rita Kempley The Washington Post	"[It is] riveting in its awful way, like 'The Fly' with drinks."	POS
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"Bukowski's dialogue is not only richly funny but, when Henry quotes his own writings, it's also compelling"	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"One imagines from the limited evidence offered here that Bukowski is both a better writer than the movie makes him out to be"	NEU

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